The Beautiful Village of Anavryti

Anavryti is a small beautiful village situated in the Greek region of Peloponnese, on a snowy area of Mt. Taygetos. The ideal season to visit this village is during summer time or in the first weeks of spring, although its cold winter also have a special charm and can be found attractive by some tourists as well.
One of the main attractive characteristics of Anavryti is the amazing landscapes and sights it provides due to its location. From this spot, visitors can enjoy amazing views on the village as well as on surroundings, a factor which those visitors who enjoy sightseeing and photographing often find very appealing.

Today the entire village constitutes a traditional museum and at the same time the base to return to after your rambles and hikes in the paths and the pavements.

There is one main amazing spot visitors can meet in Anavryti: the Geological Museum. The Geological Museum of Anavryti exhibits a variety of elements and pictures related to the fauna and flora of the village and its surroundings, with a section specially dedicated to Mt. Taygetos. This museum attracts visitors from many different places and is often considered as one of the most interesting spots in that area of the Peloponnese.

Those visitors who approach this area in order to meet Mt. Tygetos, should always try to visit Anavryti wince this destination would not only allow them to visit the Geological Museum and learn important information about this mount, but also would allow them to have a nice first approach to their destination and enjoy it from a peculiar perspective as well.

The village is a starting point for a tour of Mt. Taygetos. It is here that the paths begin for the shelter (E4), for Mystras, for Aghios Ioannis and Taygeti. From Parori begins the path to Panaghia (Our Lady) Langadiotissa, a marveloys church built inside a cave and to the Monastery of Phaneromeni. From Mystras there is a lovely route to Picoulianica, Taygeti and also to Aghios Ioannis of Vouvalon and Neos Mystras. Visit the site of Kaiadas and walk around the grounds of the Sainopoulian Theatre.

Another interesting spot visitors can meet in Anavryti is the Monastery of Phaneromeni. The Monastery of Phaneromeni is an antique religious construction which counts with the peculiarity of being built inside a cave. This way, this construction is very appealing due to its structural characteristics and unique location, and tourists who meet this village should always try to visit it.

The hospitable Holy Monastery of Faneromeni is situated at an altitude of about 800m and offers warmth, relaxation and hospitality to the passing travelers. It was founded in the late 19th century and the 9th November is the monastery’s feast day.

Anavryti counts with several facilities, such as a main guesthouse, and some hotels spread within the village and its surroundings. Besides this, there also are several restaurants and places in the village square where visitors can enjoy some unique local traditional dishes while enjoying a beautiful landscape and breathing an amazingly pure fresh air.

The tavern of Uncle Vangelis in Anavriti which specializes in pasta and potatoes, roast, homemade cheese, pumpkin tops and so on. The tavern of Soumaki in Anavriti has very good cuisine as well.

FOUNDED BY JEWS?

In an article published in the Oxford Journals, John Launer writes the following about Anavryti:
“I found out that the legend of the Greek mountain Jews was not nearly as improbable as it seemed. Indeed, the Apocrypha records contacts between the Maccabeans and the Spartans that go back to the third century BC. Over a millennium later, there were Jews living in Sparta—although a monk named Nikon tried to have them expelled, in exchange for helping the inhabitants to overcome the plague. A Jewish quarter survived in Mystra itself after the Turkish conquest, only to be burned down later by the more brutal Venetians. Maybe the village of Anavriti had been founded by the survivors of one of these upheavals.

A few years passed before I found myself back in Mystra, this time accompanied by my wife. It was, of course, unthinkable to miss the chance of finally visiting Anavriti. Following local advice, we took a taxi from Mystra to a gravel mill in the countryside a few miles up the road, and asked someone there to show us the trail head. Rather untypically for Greece, the advice turned out to be entirely accurate and useful. Soon, we found ourselves climbing in glorious weather along a spectacular kalderini—an ancient cobbled donkey track that had borne Mycenaean traders across the mountains to the coast, hundreds of years even before Sparta was dreamed of, let alone Mystra. Two hours later, we reached Anavriti with a sense of triumph. We collapsed into a bar in the main street, and ordered some drinks in our minimal Greek. Having finally arrived here, how would we find out anything about the place or its history?

‘How ya doing?’ were the first words we heard. Evidently, we had no need to worry. An elderly man had sauntered over to our table, sat down, and begun to speak in perfect Brooklyn. Introducing himself as Louis (we never learned his Greek name) he explained that he was Anavritan, born and bred. Originally destined for a monastery, he had not found the idea much to his taste. Instead, he joined the Greek navy and ended up living in the USA for 45 years until he came back here to retire. When he was a child, he explained, there were 4200 inhabitants in Anavriti, including 400 schoolchildren. Nowadays, the population was made up largely of retired Greek Americans like himself—hence the wealthy-looking houses and renovated roofs we could see all around us. There were now only six children in the whole village, although they still employed a teacher to keep the school going.

Louis told us about his own family. We learned about his son, his Cuban daughter-in-law and his Spanish-speaking grandchildren. He described some of his chequered career in New York and Florida, which included an episode of smuggling diamonds from Ghana. Most people, on learning that my wife is a rabbi, are somewhat fazed at first. Not so Louis, who at one time had been in the catering business in New York. There, he had a male rabbi as a business partner, and had known many female rabbis as acquaintances. His company had catered for literally hundreds of large-scale bar mitzvahs. (‘They don’t do them now like the old days!’ he lamented.) He addressed my wife as ‘Rabbi’ at every turn. And then, suddenly, he cracked a Jewish joke and broke into Yiddish—the language of mediaeval Germany, carried into Poland and Russia by Jewish exiles, and then, half a millennium later, into America, to be picked up by every New Yorker of whatever origin.

Was Anavriti itself really Jewish, we asked him. Yes, he replied, that’s what the old people say. According to popular tradition, the village was founded by Jews around 500 AD. Later on everyone converted to orthodox Christianity, he said, but they were proud of their origins, and disappointed that the young people took no interest in the tradition. And yet, to tell the truth, I think we hardly cared very much ourselves by that moment who had founded Anavriti, or why. Sitting here, with the ironies and interconnections of a dozen civilizations echoing in our conversation and reverberating through the surrounding landscape, all that seemed to matter was the miracle of chance meetings and inexplicable coincidences, and the enduring beauty of Greece itself”.

TO GET THERE

To get to Anavriti, you need only first to make your way to the historic city of Sparta. Start from the center of Sparta, heading in the direction of Gytheio, and you will soon cross over the central street Palaiologou; coming out of the city you will reach a sign posting, directing you to the right towards St. John (Ag. Ioanni). Following that road, and without making any turns whatsoever, you will reach the settlement of St. John (Ag. Ioanni). Now look for the sign indicating “Anavriti 8 km”. You are now at the foothills of Mt. Tayghetos; follow the signs and it’s a short trip (about 20 minutes) to Anavriti, where you’ll easily locate the Antamoma without any further directions.